Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has been embraced around the country as a means to achieve sustainability goals, including reduced auto dependency and traffic congestion, as well as improved economic competitiveness. However, the process of actually implementing TOD varies based on a variety of physical, economic, and market conditions.

Editor's Note: The street is the open area between buildings and for too long the sole priority has been on facilitating the movement of automobiles in that space. As the price of this auto-centric focus becomes clear with the rising pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, cities are setting new priorities. This week's excerpt from Are We There Yet? looks at how America's streets have become dangerous by design. This excerpt also includes a discussion of the modern oxymoron "free parking."
Visit the Are We There Yet? home
It wasn’t that long ago that “the street” meant the entire open area between the buildings on either side, and that pedestrians had “undifferentiated dominion over both the sidewalk and the roadbed,” writes Christopher Gray in a 2011 op-ed in the New York Times. “Sidewalks were not pedestrian cattle pens but off-limits zones for vehicles . . . it’s a question of territory, and the pedestrian…

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Countywide Sustainability Planning Policy was adopted by the Metro Board in Fall 2012, and is based on work by Metro staff and a consultant team led by ARUP, and including Center for Transit-Oriented Development partners Reconnecting America and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, as well as Fehr and Peers and Barrio Planners. We at Reconnecting America want to congratulate Metro on getting recognition for this huge step forward in sustainability planning. Separate Metro policies address sustainability in operations and construction.

Editor's Note: Many voters across the country have willingly taxed themselves in order to fund major expansions of transit systems in recent years. This week's excerpt from Are We There Yet? explores this trend and the examples of Denver and Los Angeles. Unfortunately, as the report explains, in many places the dollars for construction have not been matched by funding for operations, a problem proving particularly hard on systems serving low-income, transit-dependent populations.
Visit the Are We There Yet? home
Voters have proved to be enthusiastic supporters of transit ... and have stepped up to tax themselves in order to make up for the shortfall in state and federal funding. Twenty-three sales tax measures for transit were passed in 16 states in the 2008 election. These sales tax measures are sometimes criticized as regressive because they impose a greater burden on lower-income families. Many states mitigate this by…

Reconnecting America, Smart Growth America, and Transportation for America are preparing to launch a new venture and we are looking for an experienced entrepreneur to join us in co-founding a startup opportunity. The new venture will create a social community for those living an urban, car-lite lifestyle by providing news, events, and local resources, an easy connection to urban goods & services and bring people together on and offline.

Editor's Note: Transit ridership is growing and communities across the nation have been responding with new transit systems and major expansions, with mayors often leading the way. But as this week's excerpt from Are We There Yet? illustrates, and recent updates to the Transit Space Race underline, federal funding is falling further behind what is necessary.
Visit the Are We There Yet? home
Interest in transit has boomed during the past two decades, and transit ridership is up 13 percent since 2000. The American Public Transportation Association, in its 2011 analysis of transit use, found that “Americans took 10.4 billion trips on public transportation in 2011, the second highest annual ridership since 1957. Only ridership in 2008, when gas rose to more than $4 a gallon, surpassed last year’s ridership.”
Regions across the country are responding by building new…

Editor's Note: There are many ways to weave walking, biking, and transit into a seamless tapestry of transportation choices and today's excerpt from Are We There Yet? examines some of the myriad smartphone apps and other efforts that are creating the safe and pleasant connections to transit opportunities that are critical in order to give people more choices for getting around.
Visit the Are We There Yet? home
The growing demand for more safe and pleasant environments for walking, biking and taking transit is being aided by transportation engineers like Dan Sturges, who are focused on making it easier for people to get to and from transit stations and bus stops — the so-called “first mile/last mile” connection. Because so many neighborhoods have been built to accommodate the automobile — with wide streets, deep lots and long distances between things — it isn’t always easy to get to stations, and there’s…

Featured Stories

The Half-Mile Circles blog is a place to share information about recent research, innovations and other issues related to TOD and livable communities. We also invite experts to talk about their work. Combined with Jeff Wood's The Other Side of the Tracks, the Half-Mile Circles blog is an opportunity for a daily dose of TOD, and allows you to weigh in with your own opinions. Usual blog rules apply; please keep the comment threads civil. To submit an expert article, contact Jeff Wood